Please forgive my lack of basic understanding, but I figure this is the best place to find this information as the Blakberry Website seems to offer little in the area of detailed information regarding Blackberry Enterprise Server.

My company currently issues Treo 750's to our employees with our Exchange 2003 server running activesync. We have loved the interoperability of the treo device with exchange, but the reliability of the treo device (constant need for reboots and generally slow interface) has become overwhelming.

I am wondering if the following features would be the same if we were to switch over to using a Blackberry with BES;

1. are a typical user's custom email folders available on the blackberry device?
2. when emails are moved from the inbox to specific email folders, are the changes seemlessly updated on the exchange server? (and vice versa)
3. when a message is marked as read on the server, does the device update accordingly and vice versa?
4. are all calender event details available and fully synchronized on the blackberry. (i.e. meeting attandees, time, duration, location)
5. when meeting attendees update calender events, are they automatically updated on the blackberry device?

I appreciate any answers that you could provide me on these basic questions before I proceed any further.

1. Yes, users can see all of their mailbox folders (but not archive folders).

2. Yes, if they are moved to a mailbox folder the message will either show on the device that it has been filed (icon will change next to the message) or the message will no longer show in the Messages app on the folder. This is configured on the device.

3. This is something that is configured on the device, but yes, this can be done.

4. Yes, all of this information is shown on the device. The only thing that is NOT currently available from the device is the ability to search free/busy time (i.e., I'm creating an appt on my BB - can invite people, but can't search free/busy time. This is coming in SP5 for BES 4.1, though).

5. Yes, updated calendar items are reflected on the Blackberry.

Hope this helps!

__________________No longer a BES Admin, but it was fun while it lasted!

Thanks for all of the advice. I have heard that windows mobile 6 is supposed to fix the instability and speed isssues of the Treo 750's. But, they have been jerking us around about when exactly the mobile 6 upgrade will be available for these devices. We bought the Treo 750 based upon a promise that 3G on this device will be available when mobile 6 upgrade is released for these things in september '07 which is long gone. (It is already out in europe, so it seems as though AT&T is holding it back in the USA to boost sales of their own Windows mobile 6 devices and the iPhone).

Nonetheless, we are going to express our concerns and disatisfication in this matter with AT&T, and switch to Verizon and buy all Blackberries. The blackberry is a much more stable device and responds to the user much more rapidly. No more waiting 10 seconds for the phone to hang up after pressing the red button upon completion of the call.